Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Catherine Ariemma never intended for students to be offended by the sight of four Ku Klux Klansmen at Lumpkin County High School.

Wow! Really, I just don't have anything to add to that. I've just been sitting in stunned silence since reading that opening sentence.

Ariemma, a six-year veteran with the Lumpkin County school system, said the students, who were working on a film project for her advanced placement U.S. history class, meant no harm.

She admitted that she may have made a mistake by letting the students film the Klan reenactment on campus.

Yeh, ya think? You think maybe that might not have been the wisest course of action? You sure?

"I feel terrible that I have students who feel threatened because of something from my class," Ariemma told the AJC. "In hindsight, I wouldn't have had them film that part at school."

Oh, well hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it? I mean, who could have possibly foreseen that any students would take offense at the sight of robed Klansmen walking around campus?

Ariemma's students were filming reenactments of various historical periods last week, and four donned Klan outfits, superintendent Dewey Moye told the AJC.

She said she walked with them through the cafeteria, but forgot students were there eating lunch.

Oh, my God! I totally forgot that the cafeteria is used by students as a place to eat lunch!

"I told them, ‘I don't want you to walk through the building by yourselves because I don't want people to get the wrong idea," Ariemma said. "I failed to think about that there was a lunch track in the cafeteria when they went by."

How could anyone get the wrong idea? Four guys in Klan robes? Do you think someone might somehow mistake them for actual Klansmen? Seems pretty far-fetched to me!

Ariemma is an award-winning teaching.[sic] Last year, the Georgia Senate passed a resolution lauding her "dedication to her students and her profession" after she was honored as Lumpkin County High School's 2009 STAR Teacher.